Three AYCE tethering on its way out?

Had a text from Three today asking me to ring them to discuss my contract. Rumours on the internet suggest they're going to be moving the out of contract old One Plan (AYCE including tethering) customers over to their "shiny" new plans which impose a limit on tethering in early January.

I haven't called them up yet because I already have a PAC, plan to leave and don't fancy spending any of my evening on hold.

Anyone else heard from here anything from Three about this contract change?

I saw these threads:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2022737

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2022847

Oh well time to find a new provider then. I am willing to put up with a shoddy network with loads of not spots, and next to useless CS, because it suits my needs where I want it, I like the idea of unlimited tethering, In case I need it, but my total usage including tethering is usually less than 2gb, I think time has come for a pac code and to move on.

Let me know where you go and what deal you get.

Looking for unlimited texts about 200 minutes and 10GB data with tethering. Hoping to find something close to £13.

Main thing keeping me is feel at home at the moment

There's nothing like that in the market. Even Tesco mobile wants £25/month for 8GB a month.

There are apps out there but you need to have your device rooted for it to work correctly

Hi

I was recently in the similar situation (leaving 3 but wanting a load of cheap data and tethering).

I went for O2 via CarphoneWarehouse online only (via QuidCo) - which effectively gave me Unlimited Minutes, Unlimited Texts and 5gB of 4G data per month - for £16.34

Here's the breakdown:
+ Standard tarriff £25
+ £20 QuidCo (deduct £1.66 per month)
+ £84 chq cash back (deduct £7 per month)
Total £16.34 - 1 year commitment

Hope that helps!

In reply to a post by brandscill:

Looking for unlimited texts about 200 minutes and 10GB data with tethering. Hoping to find something close to £13.

As others have said, there's little chance of 10GB data on a phone contract for £13. That puts you in the low to medium price bracket for a SIM only contract, whereas 10GB is a premium amount of data.


It seems that Three are moving to a more aggressive stance on tethering a phone contract. Occasional use is regarded as OK, but if your primary use of the contract is data sharing, they expect you to buy a Mobile Broadband contract.

Three charge £15/month for 10GB data on SIM only Mobile Broadband on a 30 day basis. This account allows you to share all the data and I believe the entire 10GB allowance is available via Feel at Home.


My Three Mobile Broadband SIM is currently in a Netgear AC762S 4G Wi-Fi hotspot that I bought as a SIM free device allowing me to move between networks at will. I intend to change the AC762S for the new AC785S with DC113A Ethernet cradle when that hardware becomes available.

My plan is to use the mobile broadband as failover for my Zen connection when at home, but the Ethernet cradle for the older AC762S is not available in the EU. I could use Wi-Fi to hook the AC762S to my router, but the AC762S only supports 2.4GHz which is very congested where I live. The newer AC785S is supposed to have a more readily available Ethernet cradle and is a newer generation of hardware, with dual band Wi-Fi and LTE Category 4 support. It makes more sense to upgrade to a newer device than spend money on an AC762S solution.

When I need the connection elsewhere, I'll undock the Wi-Fi hotspot and take it with me.

10GB is a premium amount of data in the eyes of everyone but Three.

The reason I said 10GB is because that would enable me to use as much as I want without worrying. In reality I only use 3-4GB a month and rarely touch my 4GB tethering limit. I understand the need to put a cap on tethering as people were (and rightly so if allowed) using it in place of a home BB connection.

I would be willing to pay a little bit more, maybe £16-18 a month for unlimited data with a cap on tethering. If Three can do it why can't the others?

Edited by deleted (Tue 18-Nov-14 13:06:33)

Giffgaff have a package that offers 5GB and I believe they allow tethering on their metered packages. Depends on how good the O2 3G in your area is as to whether they would be any good.

Seems like 3 are not honouring the £10 loyalty discount for those on the 12 Month One Plan sim.

Shame that. Looks like i'll jump over to EE.

In reply to a post by brandscill:

10GB is a premium amount of data in the eyes of everyone but Three.

£27/m for a SIM only 12m contract with EE for unlimited talk, texts and 10GB data.

Some more information would be appreciated. What £10 loyalty discount and why do you say they're not honouring it? I got a £7/month discount which was the offer on One Plan from end of 2013 to early 2014 and my last bill, end of November, still shows it. The 12 month contract was £3/month cheaper than the 1 month.

Hey - this is a bit of a long shot.

At the moment I'm halfway through a 2 year contract with Three on The One Plan.

I got that originally because I thought I would be doing a lot of tethering of data. But it turns out I'm not doing that anywhere near as much.

I also like the idea of their new contracts which include freephone 0800 numbers etc.

My One Plan Contract runs until Oct next year - is it worth trying to see if I can switch contract with them now to something cheaper or do I have to wait until then?

I don't need a new phone as I'm happy with what I've got.

Just 'phone them up and see what they'll offer. You shouldn't be any worse off as all you need to do is say no and stick with your year of One Plan. Unless it's a really good offer I'd want to make sure the contract still ended on the same date.

Three stopped offering the One Plan during early to Mid 2014, my Galaxy S4 One Plan minimum term expires in April 2015 and contract page says "Your minimum term is the minimum duration of your contract. Unless we receive notice, your contract will automatically continue after this date"

I'm not going to give notice to quit the contract, simple as that but will have to wait and see what happens. I would have thought that as long as I continue to pay the invoice I'm sort of grandfathered into the contract.

I also have a SIM only One Plan 12 month deal too, that is £15/month where the minimum term has just expired before Christmas 2014. It's actually £25/month with a £10 credit applied, a deal too good to miss at the time. I've had no notification of any changes and I'm just going to keep the contract rolling, I'll keep an eye out for the £10 credit no longer being applied as some posters are saying here.

* Update* OK just checked the account details, the 12 month One Plan contract expired during the first week of December 2014. The £10 recurring discount has been applied for the period of 11th Dec 2014 to 10th Jan 2015, so it looks like the contract is rolling on without any changes and the discount is being honoured. As long as the situation stays like that I'll be happy.

Edited by deleted (Tue 30-Dec-14 13:40:36)

At the moment am getting the one plan for £15 a month, if 3 decide to change anything I'm off, as it's getting harder and harder to justify staying with them, their coverage of the town I live in is abysmal, and the only reason I am still with them is they seem to offer the best coverage where I work.